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Today the Sacramento Tree Foundation celebrated the grand opening of the Urban Wood Center. Sacramento, as the City of Trees, has many mature hardwood trees and some of them have to be removed at the end of their lifespan. These ash, london planes (sycamores), redwoods and oaks can be a tremendous source of high quality wood for artisans and woodworkers. Affordable too.

The Tree Foundation created this venture to divert these logs from the waste stream and repurpose the wood to a higher and better use. All of the proceeds go to support the mission of The Sacramento Tree Foundation. There are wood slabs, dimensional cut boards, and ready made planters.

You can find the products and prices on the webpage, or you can visit the site at The Depot Thursdays 11:00 – 3:00; Friday 11:00- 3:00; Saturday 9:00 – 4:00 or by appointment Monday – Wednesday.

Coming to a Delta slough near you??! Nutria, once eradicated in California, are making a comeback.

They are kind of cute, except for their ability to eat through a wetlands in record speed, or their penchant for burrowing and destabilizing levees.

These South American rodents usually weigh 20 pounds and outcompete the native muskrat and beaver for food. Plus they are champion breeders. You can identify them by their white whiskers.

The Delta Conservancy just gave CDFW a $1M+ grant for surveillance and eradication efforts to keep them out of the Delta. If you see them anywhere in the state, please report them to:

Suspected observations or potential signs of nutria in California should be photographed and immediately reported to CDFW ONLINE, by email to Invasives@wildlife.ca.gov, or by calling (866) 440-9530. Observations on state or federal lands should be immediately reported to local agency staff. If this species is captured, do not release it, immediately contact your local CDFW office or County Agricultural Commissioner.

At least once a week I go on an adventure with my grandson Calvin who is 16 months old. He reminds me of the joy and wonder of noticing the things we adults often overlook. Like the inlaid wood and carving at the Crocker Museum. Or the joy of going to the nursery in springtime.

Where is Gramma J?

Today we went to the Plant Foundry in Oak Park, Sacramento, California.

The challenge is getting plants whilst enjoying it from a wee man’s perspective. So glad my daughter was along to help out this time.

In a recently published book, 1001 Things to Do with Kids in Sacramento by Sabrina Nishijima, there are many ideas for kids of all ages. I have been looking for more ideas so I plonked down my debit card to buy this from Time Tested Books on 21st Street near K. Just remember, sometimes you can keep it simple and have a great adventure, like the time we never made it into the Railroad Museum because the wooden sidewalks and rocky paths were so fascinating.

My friend Scott and I dropped in on the Sacramento Greek Festival at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on Alhambra and F Streets. With a $5 per person admission we entered a celebration of all things Greek. From fried cheese to a raffle for an original Gregory Kondos painting.

We started with appetizers including fried cheese and pita bread, spanakopita and skewered pork with yogurt sauce. Even sharing these dishes we hit “Tilt!” with yummy food. We needed to walk and digest. We discovered the gyro cafe across the plaza and a dinner buffet inside the hall.

We walked through the markets where you can buy a Greek pride t-shirt, Tupperware, jewelry or an icon. The kids zone offers an outlet for children to play. There is a full bar and a wonderfully slow coffee bar. Kathy cooked my coffee in a pan full of sand, guessing my nationality and keep us entertained until my very hot coffee was ready.

We had bought baklava and baklava cheesecake at the desserts booth inside the hall. We scored an outside table and listened to trad Greek music by Mythos and watched dance lessons and more accomplished Greek dancers. The baklava was just the right balance of walnuts and honey and phyllo. Even with the delicious coffee we couldn’t finish the dessert, so Scott took one for the team and offered to take it home.

This is 54th festival but the first in a few years back in the courtyard of the newly expanded Greek Orthodox church. Church tours are available, check the program.

We live in Midtown so it was easy to walk to the Festival. There’s also parking at Sutter Middle School. The Festival continues through Sunday, October 8. Don’t just sit there–Go!

We took advantage of the tail end of Farm to Fork Sacramento’s restaurant week at Hook & Ladder. My friends were visiting from out of town and they are adventurous eaters. I wanted to try someplace none of us had been. The menu offered two choices of an entree, plus two choices of main, plus two choices of dessert. My friend and I made sure we tried it all–3 dishes each for $35 per person. Our other friend ordered the peach and pesto pizza.

It started with a craftsman cocktail with a clever name. So clever the gin blotted it from memory.

We enjoyed the very competent service and ordered our drinks. I decided to splurge and try the cocktail. This is about twice what I normally drink. Actually, I rarely drink so how to measure? It was tasty and had a fun name I can’t remember. Sign of a good drink.

Corn soup (cold)

We dug into our fun appetizers and agreed that we’d like more of both. But wait, we have entrees coming and a huge pizza for Nora.

Hook & Ladder is at S Street near 16th Street in downtown Sacramento. You can make reservations on Open Table. This is a good idea on the weekends. The atmosphere is not fussy, but not overly casual. And with cocktails $10 and over and a main in the high $20s, it is a good date spot or place to gather with well-heeled friends.

Most of us are afraid of bats at an almost instinctual level. Unlike snakes and spiders though, I am hardpressed to name a species of bat. The other night I learned there are more species of bat of any other type of mammal except rodents. I might have known at one time in Jr High biology that bats are mammals, but it was good to be reminded.

I wasn’t prepared for the bat expert, Corky Quirk, to have live bats on display in small plastic carriers. They were fascinating to look at up close and watch as they stretched a wing or moved about. However, I was still pretty creeped out. Corky gives a great presentation including playing a rap on echolocation. She uses a camera to give us an larger than life view of the bats eating.

After a quick last bathroom break and a chance to buy a t-shirt, we piled into the van and our cars and drove out to the public entrance to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area and drove the loop until we needed to turn off onto some farm roads to reach where the bats live during the day. You cannot go there without the Foundation volunteers, although you can watch a smaller colony of 15,000 bats fly out from the first parking lot.

The best time to see them leave is about 30 minutes before sundown. The sun had already mostly gone down when the ribbon of bats started exiting from under the Yolo Causeway. It was impressive. The colony we watched fly out to eat insects all night under the Yolo County sky was a mix of mothers and adolescent pups. Bats do us a great service by eating their weight in insects every night (and twice that when moms are nursing). I was happy to learn so much about this small but mighty member of our ecosystem.

I’ve been a supporter of the Yolo Basin Foundation for 5 years and have heard various people extol the niftiness of watching the bats leave their “cave” under the Yolo Causeway. Finally I helped to organize a group of colleagues so I participate in one of the Bat Talk and Walks. You can sign up for a public Bat Talk and Walk on the Foundation’s website. Or you can contact Corky and arrange a private tour for your group, $12 per adult and a minimum $240 donation. You must have at least 12 and they can accommodate up to 60 people.

The Delta Marketing Taskforce has quietly been working away behind the scenes to develop a 5 year strategy and build a website that promotes California Delta Tourism. As someone who remembers the battle over the logo a few years ago, I find this remarkable. It is a beautiful site.

On places to eat there are over 40 restaurants. Other sections are yet to be filled out. It is a promising start. Check it out.